Meta has threatened the European Union: in a document filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the social media company created by Mark Zuckerberg warns that if an agreement is not reached with Brussels authorities to share the information of European citizens with their systems in the United States, “the future of Facebook and Instagram in Europe could be compromised.”
The main complaint of the Facebook empire is the Schrems II ruling (also known as the annulment of the Privacy Shield) of 2020, which limits the exchange of data between Europe and the North American country.
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This judicial decision annulled the “Privacy Shield” of 2016 after the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union) considered that the United States does not guarantee an adequate level of protection for our data. Before, the tech giants could easily store our data on servers in the United States.
They say from Meta now that “if a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted and we cannot continue to resort to ECCs or other alternative means of data transfer from Europe to the United States, it is likely that we will not We may not be able to offer several of our most important products and services, such as Facebook and Instagram, in Europe, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.”
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In another part of the document made public, Zuckerberg’s company says that “if we cannot transfer data between the countries and regions in which we operate or if we are restricted from sharing data between our products and services, this could affect our ability to deliver our services, how we deliver services, or our ability to target ads, which could adversely affect our financial results.”
This ordeal is, in turn, unlikely to happen. Europe is one of the main markets for this technological giant. Being left without its hundreds of millions of users in the region would be a huge financial setback that the company doubtfully wants to assume. ´ More now that, for the first time in its history, Facebook has lost daily users.
A story of tug-of-war between Meta and the EU
The regulations of the European Union put obstacles to the plans of Meta that wants to have the opportunity to use our data in a freer way. In fact, this scuffle has resulted in fines for the company created by Zuckerberg. For example, the second most expensive fine for data protection issues last year in the region was for WhatsApp, the instant messaging service of the Meta empire.
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The Data Protection Commission of Ireland, the country where this company is registered, announced a fine of 225 million euros, after explaining that this decision is the result of an investigation into whether WhatsApp correctly complies with the General Regulation of Data Protection, which started in December 2018.